James Vassallo – Wales

James Vassallo’s current work is a departure from the work made during his MA studies, in both size and medium. He has grouped this new body of paintings under the title ‘Landscapes and Seascapes I’d like to forget/ trying hard to forget’. He is currently thinking about how important, politically, land and sea have become once again, in relation to places like Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Russia, China, Taiwan…..Scotland and the referendum, U.K and the E.U, “the refugee crises” and how contradictory this all is to the idea of the worldwide web.

In talking about these issues, he is not referring to a fictitious world like he did in previous projects. Rather he is editing and re-editing, hiding and disguising, distorting found images, ‘second hand’ images, Googled images, Googled words.

His time at Stiwdio Maelor will give him the opportunity to face the ‘real’ world, the ‘real’ landscape in search of inspiration for his new work. He is interested in exploring and discussing the feeling of being overwhelmed by nature, not knowing from where to begin – feeling akin to the hopelessness one gets when thinking about the previously mentioned political problems – a feeling contrary to the sense of peacefulness he gets when going for a walk in the countryside.

He hopes to capture these thoughts and feelings in the images he is currently working on. Images that hopefully will act as a counter point to the paintings he is currently making and at the same time complement them.